OUR IGNORANCE IS GOD (Part 1)

"For it is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true.” - H. L. Mencken

The debates to disentangle the mystery of religion will most likely rage until eternity...

Some few months ago, one of my childhood friends visited my residence in Pretoria to recount how his mind came directly to me during the course of his pastor’s sermon, earlier in the church. According to the details of his account, his passion strongly signified the certainty that the Holy Spirit must have in particular inspired his church pastor to deliver this picky sermon as forewarning to those of us who hold the conviction that there is no God.

He recounted that the theme of the sermon was drawn from the first verse of the fourteenth chapter of Psalms; the New Living Translation of the Holy Bible reads, “Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” (The translation of this same verse in my mother tongue – Yoruba – rendered the word ‘fool’ as ‘mad’). Therefore, my concerned friend reproached me to repent from my insane contention that, “There is no God,” so I can be saved from eternal condemnation into hellfire.

I thereafter inquired from him if he has a copy of my latest work – The Crisis of Religion? He admitted having one, but hasn’t had the time to read through. At once, I advised him to read some of the very elucidating topics the book has intrepidly uncovered, namely: The Gullibility of Man; Man’s Word Fathered on God; The Biblical Fraud Prophecies; Forty Faceless Authors; The Legacy of Christianity; Reincarnation vs. Resurrection, and The Failed Prophecies of Jesus, amongst others; before he could come to any conclusion of who between the two of us is actually afflicted with madness, and needed deliverance from the bondage of pernicious ignorance.

Let me clearly emphasize it once again that I am not a credulous sceptic of religion. I became an unbeliever after I’ve carefully read the Holy Scriptures and found its numerous claims to divine inspiration and command to be very much ridiculous for the belief of any rational mind.

Dogmatic religion is irrational beyond absurd! The biblical God is typically a fiction who is no different from the Ra and Thor of ancient mythologies. Therefore, the prose and poetic intellect of humankind are what the architects of religion have cunningly glued together, and pushed down the throats of the credulous majority as being the word of God, for the purpose of power and lucrative profits. In the immortal words of Sir Richard Francis Burton, “The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.”

Despite my painstaking efforts in wanting to believe in God and serve him devotedly, my incisive search for God disappointingly revealed such shocking details that he’s a bogus God that does not exist. Without a doubt, the tenet of dogmatic belief is founded upon fallacies and chronic deceptions.As Edgar Allen Poe has rightly put it, “All religion is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.” Organized religion is a cartel ofscammers thatcoerceits credulous followers to believe in doctrines thatare very much untrue, and programtheir pious innocence to dependfanaticallyupon illusion and false hopes that are entirely outside the realms of value judgments.

The tragedy of this case is that, our generation has lost the battle of saving the lives of the next generation of our offspring from being indoctrinated into the institutionalized misfortune of theocratic lies. However, the hope remains that, if the world harkened the voice of reason and judicious observation from the secular community, we might replace the fallacies of theological programming with uncontaminated truth of our natural world, and save the lives of unborn generation from the calamity of dogmatic belief that ruined the lives of their feuding ancestors.

Hmm! The gullibility of man is extremely sickening beyond the pale.The clear evidence of indiscriminate sufferings of evil by the entirety of the human race, regardless of our religious convictions and enormity of prayers, should serve as a clear pointer to the cogent clue that,every proceeding in this world has naturally happened the same way we would expected life to come about if God does not exist.

The poison of insanity and injustice is heavily rootedin dogmatic faith. Otherwise, how else can we understand the notorious verdict that pronounced guilt upon humanity, against all principles of moral justice, for the evil they did not commit? What peak of extreme delusion can be greater than this strange belief in a personal God who wants to be praised at all times,even when his deficiencies as an all-powerful and all-merciful God is as visible to his worshippers as the midday sun?

Although, the stronghold of organized religions, especially in the lives of Africans, has chronically bred very awkward delusions for the people of the black continent to be contented with not understanding the world they live in, but to the sane people amongst us, our ignorance is God.

Fraternally your friend in reason

Adebowale Ojowuro

Author of The Crisis of Religion: The Feral Excesses of the Gullibility of Man.

Replies to This Discussion

Well done. Even today, the gullibility of men and women continues to amaze even though it shouldn't. In my own time, the everyday ignorance of some portions of mankind are difficult to fathom when answers lay everywhere awaiting discovery. I don't speak of the mysteries uncovered by paleontologists or astronomers, but the capability to think even in limited amounts that could easily unveil untruths and create a new world. I have not visited Africa since 1982 when I visited friends in what was the Senegal. It was very much different from the sub-Saharan Africa that I read about today. It is not surprising that the most religious nations on earth are also the least prosperous. Getting to the point of reason and critical thought is not easy, especially the latter. Critical thinking should be a grade school course that is continued into higher education. It does not come easily for many; however, reasoning is within everyone's domain, but it must be applied. Meanwhile, I will look for your book on Amazon.

Brother Adebowale has written an excellent book and it deserves a wide audience. I especially enjoyed the last chapter " Lamentation for Africa". His assessment of the African mindset throughout the diaspora is honest and scathing. I would love to see any of the "heavyweight" Black Christian or Muslim apologists honestly answer Mr. Ojowuro's indictments...fantasy is a wonderful thing.

From all indications, the fictionalized theologies of all earthly religions are irrational beyond absurd, and should not have had a single believer in this Age of Reason. Unfortunately, as Bertrand Russell once wrote, “Man is a credulous animal that must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with believing bad ones.” The reason why theologians have succeeded in bonding humankind perpetually to the adherent of their absurd theology, even when there subsists no premise at all for supposing it to be true, is because they are based primarily not on intellectual beliefs, but outside the realms of value judgements. They are fairy tales that largely appeal to the emotional levels of the credulous majority. The crux of the matter is that the gullibility of Man is extremely sickening beyond the pale. The more questionable, the more doubtful, and the more dubious the theology, the more fanatic its adherents intensely become among the human race. Thank you so much for your insightful comment and your interest in my work. Let's keep spreading the rational gospel Minute by Minute.
Fraternally yours in reason, Adebowale

I've had similar encounters with "E.M.S." Christians Adebowale. On my cell phone I have several images of the biosphere and the cosmos. What I've been asking the faithful when they've expressed their desire to "save" me from this impending non-event is; why would a God(s) need to enlist the services of fallible, petty and easily deceived humans to do his or her work for them? Why doesn't this all powerful and all present deity speak to all of humanity at the same time in its own voice? I ask them to look at the images on my phone. Look at the microbe and look at the deep field images of the Hubble telescope and ask yourself this; whatever is responsible for the existence of matter in all of its manifestations, if it is a who and not a natural process, why would that incomprehensible entity need a human sales force to spread its most important message? One of the alternative explanations I offer them for the rumblings that they feel inside of themselves is that perhaps that is not a God...perhaps it's gas, flatulence.

Aldous Huxley one said that, "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” Thank you so much for your excellent analysis of the untamed excesses of the gullibility of humankind, especially where religion and the name of god is concerned. I truly enjoyed reading your intelligent comment. If we persist over and over again in spreading our rational gospel, perhaps the message will one day get across. Let's keep pushing on... The workload is enormous. My warmest regards, Robert.

You are most welcome, Ralph. Thanks so much for your interest in my literary work. I remain fraternally yours truly in this great nexus that effectively promotes the generation of ethical knowledge amongst Non-Theists, as against the misfortune of gullible belief system that’s very much endemic in the midst of dogmatic believers.

In 1978 I was one of a handful of white guys working for ITT Nigeria Ltd Telephone Outside Plant. Every time I did a good deed of one type or another, they would accuse me of being a "good christian man". I would explain in no uncertain terms, that A. I am only good some of the time and I make mistakes just like everyone else. B. I am not a Christian and I do not believe that a lot of good comes from christianity. C. Just because I am white does not mean that I am also smart. I really enjoyed my time in Nigeria, our camp was in the Cross River State on the road between Uyo and Abak, about 2.5 miles from Abak. I learned no Yoruba while in country, I was more surrounded and came in daily contact with Efiks, and Ibos.